Answer could be overseas model of insurance
THE ANSWER to the UK’s crisis in elderly care could lie in the social care insurance systems of Germany, Japan, and South Korea, a Yorkshire academic has said.
The three countries have all implemented long-term care insurance programmes, where a sum is taken out of wages and allows access to subsidised care where it is needed.
Professor Sue Yeandle from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Sociological Studies, leads the Sustainable Care Research Programme, which is examining care systems around the world to find potential sustainable solutions for the UK’s own care “crisis”.
She said the “big difference” to our current system of national insurance, and the systems of social care insurance elsewhere, is that the money raised is ring-fenced purely for care rather than being placed in a pot as it is here in the UK.
“Every country is struggling with this to some degree,” she said.
“There is no one country that you can say is getting it right.
“But in these countries, even if you’re well off, you pay the same for your care.
“In our system, it’s a cliff edge, once you are over a certain level, you pay all the costs. If you have value in your property, you have to pay for your care.”
She said that while the NHS is one of the key things in the UK’s favour, offering no barriers to access, it “comes back to bite us” when social care is needed quickly is response to a hospital discharge.
“We haven’t put in place are proper arrangements to help,” Prof Yeandle said. “We have to look at how we can help people to support their family members at home.
“Whether that be with carer leave from work, as the Japanese have a good system, or financial support.
“When you look at the statistics, people don’t want the whole caring responsibility taken off them, they want reliable support to help them make it work.”
While policy makers, local councils and charities await the Government’s Green Paper on the future of social care funding, the release of which has been put back from this month to the autumn, Prof Yeandle said that what was needed most of all, was action.
She added: “In some ways, we already know what needs to be done. There have been endless reports and consultations that Governments, of differing colours, have had over the years and ignored. “ COLIN WEBSTER had two passions in life: golf and horse racing – and Alzheimer’s was not going to put an end to that.
Life has changed dramatically for Mr Webster, 88, and his wife Lorraine, 60, since he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s just a few years ago. The couple had lived in Ascot, but moved back to Harrogate, where they had lived previously, last year after Mr Webster’s health deteriorated.
Both he and Mrs Webster had previously been very independent, with Mr Webster, who worked as a bookmaker, touring race courses all over the UK. But as Alzheimer’s took hold, he became increasingly dependent on his wife, and did not want to leave the house at all.
After contacting the Alzheimer’s Society, Mrs Webster made contact with North Yorkshire County Council’s Living Well Service. The service is intended to tackle people’s social isolation and help them to live well in their own communities as far as possible. Living Well coordinators give people 12 weeks of intensive support and ‘signpost’ them to help them establish networks so they can do things for themselves.
In its first year since being set up in 2015, 80 per cent of those who were helped did not need any additional social care, and the programme now saves North Yorkshire County Council £1m a year by delaying entry to social care.
It helps more than 2,000 people a year maintain their independence.
“Because Colin wasn’t ready for further care, I was beginning to struggle because I couldn’t leave him at all. We’d looked at care homes, but had been greeted with groups of people just sat watching television, and we drove away,” Mrs Webster said. “I’m 20 years younger than Colin and didn’t want to go to groups with lots of older people talking about dementia.
“Colin was always really sporty, and when Emma, the Living Well co-ordinator, came to see us, she told us about an organisation that helps people to play golf.”
Mr Webster now plays golf once a fortnight at Rudding Park with Golf in Society. He also goes to a group every Friday at a church, giving Mrs Webster much-needed respite.
She said: “Without Emma I probably wouldn’t have been able to find it.”
Living Well co-ordinator Emma Knight, who has supported Mr Webster, said: “Colin had been a very active man before he got dementia, so he was never going to be the kind of man who would want to be in a craft group or anything like that.”